Difference Between Testing and Quality Assurance

Both “testing” and “quality assurance” refer to the processes made by a company to ensure quality. The main difference is the recipient of the said processes and the goal of each process.

Testing is also commonly referred to as quality control. It is a preventive measure or method to ensure the quality of a certain product or service. Quality assurance, in comparison, is the process of the quality in the process or the methods used in order to produce a quality product.

Testing involves the actual operation or use of the product in very controlled and various conditions. Results are written, cataloged, stored, and interpreted in order to assess whether the product is up to the prescribed standards of the company and the market. If the product passes testing, it is ready to be marketed and distributed to the public.

Meanwhile, quality assurance involves ensuring the quality of the process before the actual testing. It also involves the entire process of product development from monitoring to evaluation. Within the process of quality assurance, standards, specifications, and other evaluative methods are considered and followed. Another part of this process is to discover potential problems or anomalies in the product or service.

The goal of both processes also differs. The goal of testing is detecting and finding errors and recommending procedures on how to prevent them while the goal of quality assurance is to prevent errors.

Testing must comply with the pre-determined standards, regulations, procedures, and methods before conducting the actual test. If the product or service doesn’t comply, it is taken for re-evaluation and further examination. In doing things this way, the product is being ensured of its quality. Testing also acts like a validation process for the product.

On the other hand, since quality assurance deals with the process that the product undertakes, it assures that quality, not just of the product but of the method, will be reached at the end of the process. This makes quality assurance as a form of verification. Also, in terms of quality, testing is more product-oriented while quality assurance is more process-oriented.

Quality assurance comes first before testing and usually starts at the initial onset of the project. It determines the standards and procedures before the actual testing. What is being decided is what will be executed on the actual testing itself.

Standards for quality assurance can be determined by an independent team aside from the team who will conduct the testing. Also, the process in the quality assurance is independent from the process of testing. The concept of quality assurance is also wider and larger in scope compared to testing. It contains other processes like stability, usability, security, and other avenues of inspection.

Summary:

1.Both testing and quality assurance are measurements and methods of determining quality. They are also part of the process of product development and are a requirement for successful product standards and checks. Testing is done to ensure quality while quality assurance is to assure quality.

2.Testing’s goal is to find errors in a certain product while quality assurance deals more with the prevention of errors.

3.Testing is more oriented toward the product while quality assurance is more focused on the process of ensuring the quality of the product. Testing is a form of validation while quality assurance focuses for verification.

4.Testing is just a component of quality assurance. Quality assurance has a wider scope and other components like security, user satisfaction, stability, quality, and usability.

5.Both processes are determined by different and independent teams. Both processes are also independent of each other.

6.Standards in testing are determined by quality assurance.

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Written by : Celine.
and updated on November 12, 2011

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